It was 1994. I had just walked into my twelfth grade English class from ALC (alternative learning center, a nice name for in-school-detention) to find sitting in my seat, the man I will marry. Of course I didn’t think that when I saw him
I thought Gabe was Asian because he was short. I remember exactly what he was wearing the day I met him because like every girl who has a crush on a guy, she sizes him up. I thought it was cool that his socks where white, as most guys had yellow dingy or black socks. He had a pair of red converse on, a faded Dead Kennedy’s shirt, apair of blue denim Dickie’s that had been cut into shorts, a long Mohawk, and a ring in his nose which I thought was so cool because most people back at that time had piercing only in their ears.
His friend Nate who was also in Ms. Paris' class that I knew from summer school had introduced us. A couple of days had gone by and a friend of mine needed a boyfriend. She was very pretty and popular and needed a cute boyfriend for her reputation to continue. So I thought of Gabe. I told her how cute he was, how sweet he was,and cool he looked as a skater dude. So I wrote Gabe a note(which he still has to this day) explaining how my friend needed a boyfriend, and about how pretty she was but not as beautiful as me, and that I could introduce them after class. So Gabe humbly submitted. My friend agreed that he was cute, but that he was too short. So I told her that I’d take him.
From that point on, Gabe and I became best friends. We set up a date on Valentines Day February 1995 to go to a funk show, which turned out to be bunk. We spent almost every day together riding around in his red Firebird. We went to the Smurf Park, the beach, taco bell, donut shops, and mainly drove and drove and drove, and drove to nowhere town. We sat in my living room talking for hours until he had to race back home before curfew, which I believe to be 9:00 p.m. but he will argue ten. And we would take long walks in the mountains.
Gabe respected me as a person. He never tried to push himself onto me. We are both proud to say that we are each other’s first love. Unfortunately we didn’t wait until we where married because we didn’t know Jesus.
After a rough start into our marriage the Lord saves me, and then about a year and a half later, Gabe is saved. There are times where Gabe and I just talk all night long about the amazing testimony of how God brought us together and kept us together all these years. Often time’s people will stop and comment on our little family, and ask why we look so happy. We can’t help to give God the credit and share our testimony.
Without Jesus we would not be married for eleven years this April. I am grateful to God that He has sustained us through everything. He has given us three beautiful children to raise, along with two treasures in heaven. He allowed my husband to lead his mom to become born again just before she went to be with Jesus in Heaven, and to meet up with our other two children. He has given us abundantly above all that we may ask or think. He has withheld the poison even when we throw our tantrums. He has taught us how to be a man & a woman, a mom & a dad, a friend & a neighbor, a co-worker, a sister & brother, and how to love people. Gabe is one of the best things that ever happened to me. I could notpicture my life without him, or our lives without Jesus. Sometimes I sneak into his journal and read page after page, pouring his non-believing heart out to God for us to walk into eternity together, and how he can’t live without me. Then when he comes home I tell him I snuck into his Journals.
Gabe is so bashful. I love it. He is a caring guy. One of the main reasons why I accepted his nonchalant proposal (as we sat in his mom and dads living room discussing how many children we would have, and who they would look like) is because I knew he cared for me. We couldn’t wait until we had a bunch of little Gabe’s and Jannette’s running around. Well I guess he got his wish (all of the kids look like him). But at least they act like me. I guess that could be a good thing.
Gabe is a wise quiet and reserved man. Not many people get to experience the hidden treasures of Gabe. He has a heart for the lost and wants to please God in every area of his life. He is a poet, and you probably didn’t know it (cheesy, but true, he’s the best writer that I know). His words jump out on pages, and it inspires me to want to write, even though I can’t worth beans. He’s an artist, painter, and a photographer. “Oh”, and a scientist. He plays the bongos and the drums, which I made Gabe get rid of when we first met. I said it’s either the drums or me. I guess I was more important. He can also sing real well, but that’s one treasure that I hardly ever get to hear. He love’s cats and dogs. And he is a comedian (a sarcastic one at that).
Gabe is just one great person to know and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with him into all eternity.
He is the second love of my life after Jesus, and has captured my heart. I could never repay him for his sacrificial service to me, and his genuine love for the kids and I. He is a man of integrity who wants to follow Jesus with all of his heart. All of the credit goes to Jesus who has changed the boy I knew in school, into a Godly Christian man.
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